Teams365 Blog - Potentials Realized

#TEAMS365 #1862 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #80: one Platform

2/4/2019

It’s Monday and time for another Effective Virtual Conversations Tip. This week’s tip explores the tip of bringing everyone onto one virtual platform if possible.

With firewalls and varying connection from different locations, it can be common for virtual teams to have different team members connecting from different locations on different platforms. One person may only be able to call in while others may only be able to stream in.

While some of the barriers to connection may be out of our control, we want to try to bring everyone onto one virtual platform if possible.

There may be resistance on the part of team members to upgrade or try things different out, if there is too much of a learning curve, so you will want to make it worth everyone’s while.

At the same time, it is probable that you will have people connecting from different platforms due to their connection options, make sure you consider the needs of those that may be able to see, and those that may only be able to hear. Design for this. Also, be sure to consider if you can do some smaller group work, using breakouts bringing people of the same platform together. Check out this call for more!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon

#TEAMS365 #1855 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 79

1/28/2019

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversation Tip is number 79 in the series.

The tip is a reminder of the importance of pacing and interactivity in virtual conversations. Whether it’s keeping the pace moving and making changes every 2 - 5 minutes as in a webinar, or whether it’s mixing things up and making it more interactive in your next team meeting, by structuring in at least 2 or 3 engagement opportunities for everyone, a rule of thumb which may be useful to aim towards is an engagement touchpoint every 5-7 minutes, especially when groups are not as connected or content is heavy.
Engagement touchpoints in these calls might look like:

Asking a question and having people comment via chat
Getting people to annotate on the screen where they are calling in from, or which of the shown items is their favorite
Using polling to capture insights and ideas from the group

If you are working with a virtual or remote team, you might use a variety of engagement strategies to create alignment and/or connection, or more awareness of who the team is. This might include:

Breakouts so different team members with similar or divergent areas share with each other for 5-10 minutes
Using the whiteboard to do real-time planning – for example, if you have a new project which has come on board, can you map it out together using annotation?
Use screenshots to capture key agreements and next steps – rather than going away to type up notes, can you be more strategic about capturing agreements and notes as part of your agreements. Circulate the screenshot (which is often saved as part of the recording) to everyone as the visual reminder.

What can you do to create more engagement in the virtual conversations you are facilitating?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon

#TEAMS365 #1771 Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 69

11/5/2018

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip focuses on a key factor which helps teams excel. In both the virtual and in-person team space helping teams understanding their ROLES on the team, is a key activity. This becomes even more important when teams are remote and people may not have a sense of how their work fits together. This can lead to duplication, or impact when things are not done to time or scope, and have a domino effect.
Facilitating the conversation with your team about roles could be part of an upcoming team meeting.
Today’s post includes a short excerpt from Effective Virtual Conversations on page 353, As I write in the book, you might consider exploring questions such as:

What are our roles?
Where is there overlap?
How do our roles leverage people’s strengths?
In our work, what do we need to do?
How are our roles supporting the performance goals, supporting our practices and supporting our WHY?
What else is important for us to notice around our roles?
What else is important for you to notice about roles?

Enjoy the start to your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#TEAMS365 #1730 – Virtual Meeting Wrap Up Tool and Process

9/26/2018

Virtual meetings can be a drag! As I write in Effective Virtual Conversations, they don’t have to involve “Death by Conference Call”.

Four to five times a year I offer the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program, geared to provide leaders, trainers, facilitators and other professionals with tools to jazz up their virtual conversations – meetings, webinars and other virtual conversations.

It’s really important in virtual sessions to make things as visual, and visible, as possible. That’s why slides and photographs can be a great thing. While design and photography was probably not on your list of development activities as a leader, think about how photos and visuals shape:

The stories of the team
The memories of what you have achieved
The emotions created
Team identity
What photos, images and visuals are you using in your team communication? Is there an opportunity to do more, or incorporate more in these areas?

I wanted to share a quick framework you might consider using and adapting for your next team meeting.
One of the things which is important for leaders of all kinds, virtual leaders especially, is to check for understanding in terms of what people are “taking away” from a call. Team meetings are usually our only live touchpoint as virtual and remote teams. Leveraging these opportunities for feedback and learning are key.
As part of my work as a presenter, I often incorporate a slide that looks like this, at the end of the presentation:

The icons represent our focus and takeaways.
I always like to build in time to hear from each person around:

What are you next steps? (The feet icon)
What has your learning been? (The scissors)
What do you want to keep your eyes on (The magnifying glass)
What will you take forward (the briefcase)

It’s highly unlikely that we get to hear from everyone, however, I can share this on the screen and have everyone use “annotation” and include their name to indicate what their responses are. We can then take a screen grab and circulate it as key learning from the meeting.

Once people get into the practice of this, it only takes a few minutes, yet it serves as a very powerful reminder of what we covered, and also accountability tool that peers and leaders can follow up on.

How might you use something like this in your work and/or virtual conversations?

Enjoy,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#TEAMS365 #1729: Plan a Virtual Co-Working Session

9/25/2018

As we move into fall, it can be very useful for teams to continue to put attention around getting things done WHILE Connecting. A favorite activity I continue to facilitate is GET IT DONE afternoons, which really become Virtual Co-Working Sessions. They are a derivative of the virtual retreats I have been offering for teams, business owners and leaders since 2007.
Virtual co-working sessions may range from one-hour sprints, to four-hour blocks to full day sessions.
Three considerations to making a virtual co-working session work include the following:

A platform where you can all meet, see each other and converse for periods of time.

Streaming is often best, however, others may appreciate the ability to take their work on the road and call in at time.

Focus – collectively and individually. Consider these questions
What’s bringing you together today?
What’s the focus – is it to do something collectively or individually?
What outcomes do you want?
How do you want to break it down – meeting every hour for check ins? Meeting more frequently?
Scheduled Checkpoints - A way to share and keep the momentum going throughout the day. I have found that virtual group and team sessions have been the seeds for some amazing new ideas and cross-pollination. Be sure to build in blocks where people are not only checking in around what they are doing, but also consider the value of building in some time for sharing of learning or insights.

Looking for inspiration on what you might do in a virtual co-working session? Consider these ideas – they are all real programs I have facilitated over the years:

One-hour virtual sprints for planning on the team or individual level
30-minute brainstorming/innovation sessions geared to create new product and or service ideas
Four-hour Get it Done sessions where groups of solopreneurs connect virtually to take focused action once a month on things on their list. Check ins are once an hour.
Four to eight-hour Virtual Retreats, where each hour has a dedicated focus and theme to explore and/take action on. For example, an hour dedicated to creating a business plan, an hour to marketing approaches, an hour for project work).

Looking for a facilitator to host your next virtual co-working session? Contact me to learn more about this service I offer.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#TEAMS365 #1679: Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #56

8/6/2018

It is Monday and time for another tip you can use when facilitating a conference call, virtual meeting or virtual team development session. In recent weeks I have been exploring Virtual Facilitation Faux-pas or mistakes you can make. This week we are at number three which is Not Calling on People.
As a facilitator in the virtual space it’s important to:

Be strong on process
Let people know what they can expect in terms of engagement in your calls
It’s unlikely that most people will feel comfortable jumping in with a response – in fear that they may talk over someone else, or cut someone else off. With this in mind, let people know if you will be calling on people (perhaps in order) as you go. It is beneficial when you set this expectation upfront, rather than spring it on people.

Other process pieces are important including:

Letting people know where you are going, what you’ve covered and what agreements have been made
Checking in regularly about what’s been covered and understanding across the group
Utilizing a variety of approaches for engagement and bringing peoples voices and ideas into the room. This might include using breakouts, annotation, chat and/or polls
Ensuring that you start and end on time

What else is going to make your virtual conversation effective this week?

Enjoy,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#TEAMS365 #1637 – Monday June 25 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #50 – What’s Beyond the Screen?

6/25/2018

Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #50 gets to you think about how you can get people to bring something “from beyond the screen”. In today’s virtual world, we often only get to know people “in the screen”. I recently was out on the West Coast doing some work in person where people had only met me on the screen. We joked about how I was much shorter and smaller than the screen makes me appear.

Given that our window is fixed, unless we are shifting around and calling in via a mobile, it can be interesting for people to be able to share something from “beyond their screen”. You can get creative with this. Consider:

How people can use the app to log in and move around using a mobile instead of a desk-top.

How members can move around and call in from a different space each time.

In coaching work, integrating kinesthetic approaches or using body-centered coaching creates new energy through movement.

What can you do to move more in your programming?

Enjoy your reflections!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2016)
Looking to spark more conversation with your team? Consider the Conversation Sparker(TM) Cards
Set up a conversation about how we can support you and your team best
(416)996-8326

#Teams365 #1615: [Video]: Five Pitfalls in Virtual Facilitation

6/4/2018

Today's Sunday video brings to life the first five pitfalls I wrote about as part of the Monday Effective Virtual Conversation's series on pitfalls in virtual facilitation.

If you haven't read my Monday EVC tips, read them here.

Click on start for this week's YouTube video on 5 Pitfalls in Virtual Facilitation, originally published here as Teams365 #972.

After you watch it, think about how you prefer to consume information. Is it by reading OR is it by watching a video?

Enjoy your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

You can grab a copy of my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, at Amazon. You can also purchase a copy direct from our site, signed by me!

#Teams365 #1490: Effective Virtual Conversations Tip (EVC Tip #29): BE Nimble as a Virtual FacilitatoR

1/29/2018

As a virtual facilitator it’s important to be flexible. It’s likely that the unexpected will happen. Whether it’s the connection is going down or time zone conversions haven’t been made correctly, things inside, and outside of our control as the conversation leader can happen.

In today’s world we talk a lot about agility, a term which is becoming overused. When writing EVC last year I chose to use instead the term nimble. Being nimble as a virtual facilitator could mean:

Having a back up plan just in case the platform you were going to use is switched last minute
Being comfortable with change (as it will inevitably happen)
Being flexible to adjust the game plan depending on the needs of the group
Knowing your materials and having a big picture overview so you know what can be adjusted. If there were 2-3 things for people to take away from the call what would they be?

What are some other things that we can do to be nimble?
One of the most important things I find with my work is to really know my material (or the roadmap of elements), know the platform as much as I can, and be present for what the group wants. The more we can encourage engagement and interactivity the more it becomes the group’s/team’s call, which usually is a good thing.

Make a list of half a dozen things you can do to enhance your “nimble factor”.

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations - Conference calls? Webinars? Virtual coaching work? Pick up a copy of my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, at Amazon.

New in 2018 - The Teams365 Leadership Lab - an annual group for leaders which meets every two weeks throughout 2018. We'll be exploring topics like Emotional Intelligence, Team Management, Coaching Skills. We'll be kicking off on January 26th at 845 am ET online. Download the call schedule here.

#TEams365 #1434: Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #23: Preparation

12/4/2017

Today's Effective Virtual Conversation Tip is about preparation pre-virtual calls or conversations. "Winging it" is not advisable with the many "bells and whistles" you need to manage in the virtual space - from slides, to breakouts, to ensuring everyone can get on the line, to recording, you'll want to prepare and possibly practice, based on your skill and confidence level in facilitating webinars, teleclasses and other virtual events.

A few weeks ago, I hosted an Effective Virtual Conversation call (next one is today at 11 am ET) which was dedicated to "Preparing for Blast Off", the title of chapter 6 in my book, Effective Virtual Conversations.

In any call there is logistical preparation, preparation of our selves and tactical preparation.

It's good practice to get in the habit of doing things consistently when you are leading virtual sessions, which might entail running through a series of checklists to make sure you have all the bases covered. Throughout Effective Virtual Conversations I provide you with multiple checklists, worksheets and templates, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Here's a list of 10 things you'll want to do each and every time you are on tha call (modify for the platforms you are using) - Excerpt - Effective Virtual Conversations, page 219):

Have a list of your participants’ names (and contact details – phone and/or email).
Send out a reminder email about the call.
Know your material inside and out.
Have a back-up bridge line or system.
Make sure the recording is on.
Make sure you are on the line a few minutes early to troubleshoot with participants.
Make sure you start and end on time.
Review what you just did.
Ask group members to consider and/or share the main points of their learning and the takeaway/end result from the session.
Send out a follow-up email.

I hope that you'll take 5 -10 minutes today to note what you want to, or need to, have in place prior to your next session.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations - Conference calls? Webinars? Virtual coaching work? Pick up a copy of my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, at Amazon.